Removed my comment because some people have to link everything to boring politics. Just enjoy the video and forget about politics.

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CBC.ca is reporting the results of a recent Ipsos-Reid survey that attempts to summarize what Canada means to Canadians.  Those involved in the survey were asked five open-ended questions — what is Canada’s defining person, event, place, symbol and accomplishment?  The results might surprise you;

• Person – Pierre Trudeau
• Event – Canada Day
• Place – Niagara Falls
• Symbol – Maple Leaf
• Accomplishment – Canadarm

While I agree that they are all things that are definitively Canadian, they’re not necessarily the definitive things in their categories.  If you hop on over to the original article you can see the top ten for each category.  My picks would have gone a little differently;

• Person – Pierre Trudeau (but in my heart I want it to be Tommy Douglas)
• Event – 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms (there was a whole hubbub about it at the time — big deal stuff)
• Place – Parliament Hill
• Symbol – the flag
• Accomplishment – Universal Health Care

What would you have picked?

Tomorrow is Canada Day, and I figured what better way to gear up for our national celebration of Canadian culture than with a bit of local pride?

It’s an easy little game, and it’s fun too! Plus it has the added bonus of giving everyone some ideas for tourist destinations they might never have thought of. Just list off some of the amazing things that you can reach within a 20 minute drive from your front door. I’ll go first;

Within a 20 minute drive from my front door, there’s…

• one of the seven wonders of the world
• two casino’s
• an amusement park
• wine country
• a canal where “the ships climb the mountain”
• a historic carousel
• a beach that Rush wrote a song about
• “The Screaming Tunnel”
• the first capital city of Upper Canada

So where do I live? St. Catharines, Ontario of course! We’re right next to Niagara Falls (hence the casinos, amusements and wonder) and Niagara-On-The-Lake (our former capital) — all within a quick 20 minute jaunt.

Who’s next?

Stumbled across this one on the fascinating English Russia blog.  They have a fascination with all things Russian, and couldn’t help but post a picture of this horse and buggy hitting the drive thru. To the best of my understanding, in certain parts of Russia this is still a pretty typical mode of transportation — so why shouldn’t they trot on through and grab a large fries and a coke?

For all the bad press it gets in regards to health concerns and the obesity epidemic, McDonald’s still offers some healthy choices. Chris Coleson knew this and lost nearly 80 pounds eating nothing but McDonald’s since December!

Coleson stuck to that healthier side of the menu, eating items like salads and apple pies. When he started out he was 278 pounds — now he clocks in at a bite-sized 199.

Congratulations Coleson! Way to put that smarmy Morgan Spurlock in his place! (I kid, I love Mr. Spurlock — but it’s nice to see that there’s a yin to his yang.)

Check out the complete news article here.

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Tomato lovers rejoice!  Last week Boo brought tragic news to tomato addicts everywhere.  A number of fast food chains including the big M had pulled tomatoes from their menu indefinitely while the FDA attempted to locate the source of a tomato-related salmonella outbreak.  Although the FDA hasn’t been lucky enough to track down exactly where the issue started (they think it’s either Florida or Mexico) McDonald’s has announced that you can expect to start seeing a little red slice back on your Big Mac in the next 7-10 days.

Perfectly reflects Blockbuster’s boring promos and offers recently.

Source: Digg & Flickr

Every Saturday I’ll post a memorable Sesame Street video on Smart Canucks.

Jenifesto came up with this idea 2 years ago and she used to post “Saturday Morning Sesame Street Classic Kitsches” on her blog. She generously gave me permission to use her idea on here. Her posts were accompanied by enjoyable commentary but I’ll stick to posting the videos and let you, my lovely readers, do the commenting 😀 . Let us know if the videos brings back memories or if you have any interesting childhood stories.

I’ll start with one of my personal favourites, No Cookies in the Library:

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I can’t believe some people don’t go to work on Friday the 13th 😛

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Reader adora turned me on to this series of McDonald’s ads from Japan. They’re to promote the Tomato McGrand, a sandwich that we’ve never heard of over here (for more obscure McMenu items from around the world, check out this feature I penned over at fjetsam). Of course, you can’t have a classy sandwich without a classy ad campaign to go along with it. Beautiful people in grown-up Ronald outfits? I’m lovin’ it.

Hit the jump to check out the male model version;

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Here at SmartCanucks we’re always looking for coupons and freebies and simple ways to save a few coins — but what if you had to earn your savings?

A lot of jobs out there offer some great employee perks and discounts. If you work somewhere (or know of someone that does) that offers some sweet deals for their employees, let us know right here in the comments! Lots of people are always looking for part time work — maybe we can help them find that job that’ll let them stretch their dollar even further.

I’ll try and get the ball rolling — as I’ve mentioned before, my day job is with Blockbuster Video. As an employee I’m entitled to 10 free rentals a week, new movies a week before they come out, 20% off used product and candy and 10% off new. There are a few small catches (once on the shelves I have to wait 4 weeks to get movies free, 8 for games) and I can’t use my discount towards video game systems – otherwise it’s all kosher. The job made a lot of sense for my pocketbook since these are the items that I spend most of my disposable income on anyways.

Who’s next?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of CBC dumping the popular and loved “Dunt da DUNT da dunt” Hockey Night In Canada Theme. Although I’m not huge hockey fan I loved that that theme song and it’s sad to see it go.

Maybe if CBC feel the pressure and anger of Canadians they’ll renew the contract with the composer. You can contact CBC online here.

Here’s the theme song as an MP3 (right click and Save as)

A couple of days ago I came across a group of people walking around giving Free Hugs in K-town. I love the whole concept and was ecstatic to see it live especially in a small town like Kingston 😀

Did you ever come across a Free Hugs campaign in your city/town?

Here’s the video for the third time on SmartCanucks:

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Last week’s accidental return of McDonald’s Mondays was met with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, so I thought we’d try and bring it back for a little bit and see how it plays out.

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This weeks entry lets me showcase one of my favorite pieces of freeware gaming: Line Rider.

Line Rider is a brilliant little game that lets you draw complicated pictures and paths that a little tobogganer will attempt to safely navigate through gravity and natural physics. If you pop Line Rider into YouTube you’ll see thousands of brilliant images and designs that have been created in Line Rider — everything from the Mona Lisa to Super Mario Bros World 1-1.

I’ve got to admit — even I was taken aback by how hip and in touch with the internet meme McDonald’s must be to create a television ad using only Line Rider. Kudos, McMarketing department!

Skippy, a very proud father and a fellow Smart Canucks member, tells all as his daughter, Lizzie, graces the front pages of both The Star and The Toronto Sun.

Here the family thought I’d make the papers one day. My daughter beat me to it!

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/429166

In SUN too! (Pardon my gloating!)

[http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/05/23/5646406-sun.html]

Lizzie, among several of her classmates (Grade 6 students from Oshawa’s Coronation Public School) participated in an environmental project that hopes to restore the population of Atlantic Salmon to Lake Ontario. Decked out in rubber boots and amidst the stream, they helped release 27,000 salmon fry into Duffins Creek on Friday.

The project, a coordinated effort involving more than 30 organizations, is in its third year and has cost an estimated $3 million so far. If it takes off, Lake Ontario could be home to a healthy Atlantic salmon population by 2020, Robinson said.

Once the fry grow up and head out into the lake, their chances of survival are slim, Rance said. Perhaps one in 1,000 will return to the stream as adults to spawn. Fingerlings and yearlings have higher survival rates, but because they spend more time growing up in aquariums they may be less likely to come back to their home streams.

Rance said the restoration project serves two purposes – the salmon act as an incentive for people to keep the lake clean, but they also allow researchers to gauge pollution levels in the lake by studying the fish that return to spawn.

Robinson said the project means different things to the many people involved. “I’ve found a lot of different angles to it,” he said. Some act out of a moral obligation to undo humankind’s ecological footprint – “It’s sort of a you-broke-it, you-buy-it philosophy,” he said. Source

Full articles can be found in the links above.